


Angel Warrior

by ryancallaghan



Category: Supernatural, Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Angels, Childhood Abuse, Emotionless, I don't know what to put for tags, Multi, Past Abuse, i haven't slept in two days, killing machine
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-05
Updated: 2015-02-18
Packaged: 2018-02-07 13:59:01
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 19,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1901631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ryancallaghan/pseuds/ryancallaghan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hunter Winchester, unknown twin sister of Dean, is sent on a mission from the Angels to protect a certain group of survivors. Why this particular group of people was so special was lost to Hunter but she agrees nonetheless. Will Hunter let go of the past and move on when she mets someone in the group or will she be too damaged to even think about caring for someone? [Eventual Daryl/OC] [Being Re-Written]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Reveal

Grunting, Hunter sliced through the last Croat, the sick sound of a body hitting the forest floor reminding her of her tour days - being in Georgia didn't help the memories being at bay either, the heat alone made her think of Iraq. Stepping over the bodies, she flung some of the brain matter and blood off her sword and continued on into the woods, beheading any Croat that came her way, eyes skirting around the ground in search of any kind of animal tracks - hell, she'll even take a squirrel at this point. Yet, it seems like all the wildlife just disappeared overnight, she didn't even hear any birds.

"Hello Hunter," Her shoulders slumped at the familiar gravelly voice and she tilted her head back, the last days sun-ray warming her face through the trees.

"Hey Cas, got any news for me?" She asked, turning around to greet the angel with a rare smile; Castiel returned it with his own awkward one.

"The Earth's population dwindled down from high five thousands to low two thousands," Cas reported, walking closer to Hunter until he was a couple feet away; she sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Not exactly what I wanted to hear but okay, great, anything else?" She asked, exhaustion clear in her voice. She had been on her own since the beginning, since her base got overrun, having gone days without sleep and now that game had been scarce lately, she's on the brink of starvation and had actually gotten used to the stomach cramps. 

"This virus, it is the Croatoan virus but it's been altered," He paused, looking like he was trying to figure out how to find his words, "Some of the infected are smarter in ways to get food but there is no life left inside. Everyone is infected with it, not just the bitten or bled on." She threw her arms up in defeat.

"That's just great! Is that what Pestilence meant by it being "too late"?" At his nod, she sighed in frustration and tugged on her dirty hair.

"There's one more thing," He muttered, hesitant and shifted his weight on his feet.

"What is it?" She groaned, dragging her hands down her face before letting them fall to her sides as she stared at the uncomfortable angel. He cleared his throat and steeled himself, looking straight at her as he relaxed his face muscles into his "angel business" expression. 

"We have a mission for you," He stated, tilting his head a bit as he watched her. She raised her eyebrow at him, scoffing as she looked away and crossed her arms.

"A mission, huh?" She laughed lightly, "What sort of "mission"?" A weary smile made it's way onto her face and Castiel knew she was close to snapping.

"A little girl, she got separated from her group and if you don't find her within the next few hours, she will die. She's a couple miles due west, she's up a small oak tree. Bring her back to her group and convince the leader to let you stay, your mission continues onto the group - you must protect them." An incredulous laugh interrupted him, making Cas look at Hunter with a slightly offended face. 

"Excuse me?" Hunter asked, her voice a dangerously low and her gaze was deadly; Castiel shifted uncomfortably under her stare and cleared his throat. 

"There's someone very important in that group and we can't watch over them constantly anymore, which is why I ask you of this. You are the only Angel that can walk freely and know exactly what's going on and what to do. They need you." He tried to convince her, a pleading tone under his assurance. 

"Why can't one of my brothers do it?" Hunter asked, gazing off into the trees, ignoring most of what he said, desperate to get out of this mission - she didn't do well with other people, especially kids. She noticed Castiel's pause and looked over to see the guilty and sympathy shine in his eyes, the obvious frown marring his face. 

"Oh c'mon!" She groaned, dropping her head back to face the sky. "That's great! Just...great. I get to spend who knows how long with my brothers - who don't even know they have a sister! Do they even know about this yet?" Hunter gave him a pointed look and he bowed his head, shuffling his feet again like a scolded child. She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, "Fucking hell, Cas. Go tell them and if they agree, bring them here and we'll get the show on the road. While you do that, I'll look for the girl, maybe I'll even call my favorite archangel," She raised an eyebrow at him and with a defeated sigh, he left with a flutter of wings. 

Sighing, she twirled her sword and walked around aimlessly, calling out towards the sky, "Yo, Gabriel, get your ass down here," Looking over at the dead bodies, she figured she'd search their pockets to see what they've got while she waited for Gabe. Hunter was going through one of the jean pockets on her second body when a flutter of wings sounded behind her.

"Well, hello there," Hunter looked over her shoulder to send a wink and a smirk towards the archangel; it was a thing between them, the harmless flirting - they didn't deny that the other was attractive and had acted one day on impulse, the tension too much for them. However, in the middle of kissing, they couldn't help but feel like they were kissing one of their siblings and had a proper laugh about it. They still have the occasional kiss and, of course, the flirting but it was more like sibling banter. Gabriel was more of a brother to her than her biological brothers.

Hunter opened her mouth to throw a taunt at him but her hand brushed against something hard and square. Hoping beyond hope that it was what she thought it was, she let out a breezy laugh of pure joy when Hunter pulled out a brand new pack of smokes. Standing up, she waved the pack at Gabriel with a bright smile, "Jackpot." He rolled his eyes and chuckled a little when she came skipping towards him, eagerly tearing into the pack, sticking one of the cigarettes in her mouth as she searched her fatigues for a lighter. 

Gabriel watched as she lit the cigarette and took a deep inhale, wondering why inhaling smoke brought a pleased, almost serene expression when he knew that it was burning her throat and lungs. Hunter could feel him staring at her, could feel his gaze follow her hand as she lifted it to take another drag; a tiny peak at him out the corner of her eye said everything to Hunter - he was curious about her smoking habit. She chuckled and took another drag before holding the cigarette out for him to take, raising an eyebrow at him challengingly while blowing the smoke out of her nose. 

He scoffed and snatched the cigarette from her fingers, taking a deep drag and inhaled - only to promptly sputter and cough up the smoke, nearly dropping the cigarette before Hunter snatched it back, laughing heartily the whole time. She patted him on the back roughly, still chuckling as he gathered himself together; Gabriel just glared at her through his watery, red eyes. Hunter smiled at him cheekily before patting his cheek lovingly and flicked the now dead cigarette away.

"C'mon, Golden Angel, I got a little girl to find," She called back towards him, having gone a few meters before she noticed that he wasn't with her. He rolled his eyes and jogged to catch up with her. They walked in silence for a bit, Hunter thinking over what Castiel had told her and she frowned when she realized what he had said. Glancing over at Gabriel, she figured he would know - hopefully.

"Hey Gabe?" He hummed in acknowledgement. "Cas told me something earlier and it's bugging me. I was wondering if you could explain to me what it means?" He sent her an amused smirk and bumped her shoulder.

"I can't tell you what it means if you don't tell me what it is first," Hunter rolled her eyes and sighed in playful exasperation before shoving him lightly.

"He said and I quote, "You are the only Angel that can walk freely," What exactly did he mean?" She watched him, noticing how he stopped dead and just stared at her like a deer caught in headlights. He opened and closed his mouth a few times before he could utter a word and if Hunter was honest with herself, it was a first for her to see an Angel go speechless.

"I - I can't," He took a deep breath and looked around, "Look, I will tell you everything but not now and not here. Sophia is a few feet that way and you need to get the highway before it gets dark. It's not safe to be out in the open after dark, even for you. I gotta go, I'll see you soon, promise," He said in a rush, coming close to kiss her on the forehead before disappearing with a flutter of wings. Hunter sighed heavily and closed her eyes tightly, pinching the bridge of her nose before setting off in the direction that Gabe pointed out to her. 

Sure enough, a small oak tree came into view with a pair of small green tennis shoes dangling from a branch. Before Hunter could call out to the girl, a flutter of wings and quiet cursing came from behind her and she knew that Castiel had convinced her brothers to join her - how, she didn't know nor did she want to.

"Hunter," Cas called out quietly, taking a few steps away from the two brothers towards the woman. Dean nor Sam knew who she was other than that she was a hunter and needed their help with something. From the back, they could tell she was quite tall, probably a couples inches shy under six foot, armed to the teeth, and probably had been living in the woods for some time, judging by the state of her military uniform and dirty hair. To be fair, neither of them were fairing too much in the shower department themselves but neither were ever in the state of dirty that she was in.

"Did you tell them, Castiel?" She asked him, surprising the shit out of the brothers by how deep and husky her voice actually was - they haven't seen her face, since she had yet to face them, but they had assumed that she would have sort of a high-pitched tone, more feminine. They noticed how Castiel hesitated and shifted his weight on his feet, as if he was uncomfortable or afraid of her and what her reaction would be to his answer.

"I wanted to wait until they came to you," He finally answered after a pregnant pause, making her tense up and nod curtly. She finally turned to face them and the brothers had a hard time trying to school their expressions to not show their shock - she looked almost like an exact copy of their mother in her twenties. Dean had to catch himself when he almost blurted out "Mom?". Hunter gave them a sly grin, cocking her hips to the side as she crossed her arms, looking them both up and down with observant and teasing eyes.

"Hello, boys. It's nice to finally meet my little brothers," She grinned at them, only having to wait a slight moment before all hell broke loose - she could only watch on in slight amusement as the boys rounded on Castiel, wanting to know why they never knew of her, why Cas didn't tell them, etc. When Castiel's panicked eyes met hers over the boys' shoulders did she intervene - that and the shouting match was attracting quite a few Croats. 

Sighing, she took care of the Croats easily with a few practiced and well aimed swings. Hunter glanced over at the three, still arguing, the brothers not even noticing that they were almost Croat food. Rolling her eyes, she looted the bodies and grinned with joy when she came up with a couple more packs of smokes - looks like it was her lucky day. Pocketing the packs, she snuck up behind her brothers and whistled sharply, taking great joy when they both jumped with startled yelps.

"As much as I'd love to continue this family reunion, we have a job to do, so can we please?" Hunter asked, waving her sword impatiently towards the tree that Sophia was still up - only she climbed further up the tree after hearing the three men squabble. Dean sighed and scrubbed his face angrily before gesturing her forward, a silent 'go ahead'; Hunter just rolled her eyes at him before turning tail and stalking up to the oak tree. 

Looking back at Castiel, she motioned him forward as she sheathed her sword. Furrowing his eyebrows, he came to stand next to her as she removed and handed him her weapons; the two swords strapped to her back, the machete on her thigh, her chest holster with the double Desert Eagles, and her Bowtech Compound bow. With a nod to him, she started to climb the tree, her combat boots finding purchase to the bark easily, making her closer to Sophia in record time. Before long, neither of the three could see her in the tree and Castiel sighed, turned to lean against another tree next to the oak, gently setting Hunter's weapons on the ground next to him.

"Now, we wait," He said gravely, moving to sit on the ground as well. The brothers shared a look and a shrug before going to sit on the ground in front of Castiel.


	2. Nice and Confusing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys demand to know more about their sister but the angels are relentless.

Dean wasted no time at all as Hunter climbed the tree, rounding on Castiel with hard eyes, "How the hell is this chick our sister? What, did dad just go around and have kids with whoever?" He asked harshly, grinding his teeth when Cas just looked at him passively. 

"Dean.." Sam protested weakly, wanting to know the answers as well but not with the way Dean was approaching it.

"She's your twin sister, Dean," Cas answered, eyes looking up the tree that Hunter had climbed moments ago. He could hear her talking to the girl, trying to get her to come down. There was a silent pause as the brothers processed the news.

"How is that possible? If she's Dean's twin, shouldn't she have been with us?" Sam asked, eyebrows furrowing in curiosity. Dean was silent, staring at the ground as the muscles in his jaw flexed.

"Your father gave her up for adoption, proclaimed he couldn't take care of three kids, let alone a female," Cas bowed his head as Dean scoffed angrily and got up, pacing between the trees; Sam just shook his head sadly before looking down at his lap.

"That son of..." Dean growled, moving to kick one of the dead bodies a few feet away from them.

"Was - was she save? Did she go to a good home?" Sam asked quietly, looking up at Cas timidly. Castiel tried to smile a bit but it came out more of a grimace.

"I wish I could tell you more but Gabriel was the one who watched over her, he'd tell you what you want to know. Or you could ask Hunter herself," He suggested, tilting his head a bit as he watched Dean. He knew how the other male felt about his father, knew how he thought the father did no wrong but now that Dean knew that he put his only sister - his twin sister - up for adoption, it made Dean furious. So many years wasted of not knowing, thinking he only had Sam and now that it was the apocalypse, he suddenly has two more siblings - one that was actually his twin for fucks sakes!

"Gabriel!" Sam called out, being mindful to not be too loud yet loud enough for an angel to hear.

"Why is Gabriel her "guardian angel"? I thought you were, I mean, she's a Winchester, isn't she?" Dean asked, pacing in front of the two. Castiel sighed and shrugged a little.

"We knew she was a Winchester, yes, but her name was O'Brien at the time, so she went to Gabriel. It made sense at the time since she was always with two of his other charges," Cas explained, fiddling with Hunter's bow string. Sam furrowed his eyebrows and tilted his head.

"O'Brien?" He asked, scoffing a little with a snort. Castiel raised an eyebrow at him and Sam had enough sense to look shameful as he dropped his head.

"She went to an Irish couple, yes. From age four to twenty-five, she lived in Ireland. She came back to the states, on a ferry, with two of her friends and stayed in Boston until she enlisted in Marines on her thirtieth birthday," A voice said from behind the tree Castiel was leaning against. Gabriel stepped out and did a slight bow before plopping next to Cas.

"Why did you wait 'till now to tell us, you dick?" Dean growled, narrowing his eyes at Gabriel, ignoring how Sam threw a look at him. Gabriel just smirked up at him.

"Because she didn't want us to tell you nor did she want you to know. Yet," Gabriel explained lightly, still smirking up at Dean. Sam rolled his eyes in exasperation and clicked his tongue.

"So, what, we have an older sister and a younger half-brother?" The two angel nodded in confirmation. Dean laughed dryly before muttering "great" under his breath.

"Hunter is actually Dean's twin, if you yahoos missed that tidbit," Gabriel mocked, picking apart a stick he found next to him. Sam just rolled his eyes again.

"We know, I just figured she was the older one since she said "younger brothers"," Sam said, flicking a piece of grass at Gabriel as Dean glared at the trees. Seems he didn't like that he was no longer the older brother, in the blood sense, but that didn't mean he was accepting that this lady was his older sister - his sister, yes, but not older. Nope.

"Wait, does Chuck know about her?" Sam suddenly asked, causing Dean to stop his pacing, eyes darting between the three men rapidly. The two angels shared a look before Gabriel sighed tiredly.

"Unfortunately, yes, just not in your series. Hers was a separate series, a little longer then yours, granted, but still the same," Gabriel explained, shooting Cas a glare when he tried to knock an arrow on Hunter's bow. Castiel just shrugged a little, handing the bow to Gabriel with a tinge of embarrassment.

"Are her books gonna be part of the "Winchester Gospel" or whatever it's suppose to be now?" Dean demanded, eyebrows furrowed angrily. Castiel absentmindedly licked his lips before answering - a habit he picked up from the brothers.

"No, hers won't be, not anymore. If things were different, then, yes, perhaps they would be - however," He paused, glancing over at Gabriel before continuing, "her story doesn't exactly...give her a good light. When people read your story, they loved you both - unconditionally. They admired you. When they read Hunter's story, however...they despised her. Wanted her dead," Seeing the boys' expressions, Gabriel jumped in before they started shouting.

"Chuck had to stop her books after the threats got too bad, thought that if someone was crazy enough, they might've gone after her," The boys scoffed.

"Still, why would they admire us but want her dead? What the fuck did she do that would have hundreds of people out for her blood? And how come we never knew about these books?" The two angels just stared at Dean with blank expressions long enough for him to shift uncomfortably.

"That's a conversation for another time and we ordered Chuck to not inform you," Castiel said, looking up at the tree that Hunter went up with rapid attention. Gabriel just sat there and continued to play with Hunter's bow.

A rustle of leaves caught the boys' attention and all of them stiffened as they waited for Hunter to come down with the girl. Much needs to be explained and they didn't really have the leisure to sit around outside after dark anymore.  
\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

"Sophia?" Hunter called out softly, gripping the tree branch tightly as she cautiously made her way towards the small girl. The twelve-year-old blonde girl eyed Hunter warily, clutching the ratted doll to her chest and shrunk further into the bark; the poor girl was dirty and looked exhausted. "It's okay, sweetie, I was sent to come find you, bring you back to your ma, to your group. It's okay," 

Sophia still stared at Hunter warily and whimpered, "Who are you? I don't know you," Her bottom lip started to quiver and Hunter cursed silently - she doesn't do crying children - or crying anyone, for that matter.

"My name is Hunter, I was sent to find you, you just have to trust me on this. I'm going to take you back your ma, I promise you that," She said softly, holding a hand out towards the girl. Hunter could hear angry, hushed voices down from below and she figured that the boys were trying to tear Castiel a new one. Her suspicions were confirmed when a sudden controlled shout of "Gabriel!" sounded throughout the forest, causing the girl to jump a bit; she didn't have to hear to know that a flutter of wings would come next.

"I have a few friends down there waiting for me," She explained, rushing to add once she saw the girl's eyes widen in fear, "It's alright though, they're good people, they won't hurt you, I promise on my ma's life, bless her soul," Sophia stared at Hunter for a few more beats before nodding hesitantly, scooting towards her to wrap her arms around Hunter's neck. 

"It'll be easier for me to climb down if you were on my back," She said, gripping the girl's legs gently before maneuvering her behind. Hunter made sure the girl had a tight grip on her before descending the tree, looking down periodically to make sure she got her footing right - the last thing she wanted was to fall out of the tree and land dead center on the poor girl.

When Hunter was closer to the ground, she decided to drop the rest of the way, making the small girl let out a tiny shriek and clung to Hunter, even when they landed safely on the ground. Hunter patted the Sophia's hands, reassuring her that she was safe and sound before tugging at her death grip. Turning to face the small group, she raised her eyebrows at her brothers' furious aura and the angels' aloof stature - clearly her brothers didn't understand the definition of 'patience'. 

"What did I miss?" She asked, trying to lighten the atmosphere but the tension was so thick, it was no use - plus, with the looks she was getting, it wasn't appreciated either. She sighed and rolled her eyes, crouching down so Sophia could get off her back easy. Spinning on the balls of her feet, she gripped the girl's hands gently and smiled softly at her.

"Sophia, these are my brothers, Sam and Dean," Hunter said, pointing them out for the girl. She smiled shyly at them, eyes taking in their massive forms. "And these are my friends, Gabriel and Castiel," She continued, nodding towards the two sitting angels. Sophia waved timidly at them all before making her way towards Sam, who was still sitting. Sam just watched the girl warily, wondering what she was doing; Sophia just smiled gently at him before wrapping her arms around his neck in a hug, making Sam stiffen with a wide-eyed, shocked expression, his gaze snapping up to Hunter's. 

"Looks like little Sophia here wants you to carry her back, Sam," Hunter chuckled, standing up and stretched out her limps, sneaking a glance at Dean - who had returned to glaring at the trees - before making her way towards the angels, smirking at Gabriel who just made a face at her in return; she just chuckled as she bent down to gather her weapons.

"Well, c'mon, we only have about an hour and a half before it gets dark and the highway is about three miles that way," She murmured after she was done, pointing North with her one of her swords. Hunter didn't wait long for them to get ready, taking point as she lead them through the forest, slicing the random Croats that got in their way before any of them could lift a weapon.


	3. Meetings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hunter might make new friends or maybe some new enemies.

It was dusk by the time they reached the highway, all of them - minus the Angels - were exhausted, Hunter nearly on the stage of passing out as she was the one who took point and taken care of any walkers that stumbled across them. Sam had asked Sophia if she could see anyone from her group on the long stretch of road, which she nodded and pointed at the RV that was a few yards to the right of them; they could see two people among the cars and Hunter could cry from relief when she saw her truck not too from where the RV was stationed. 

As they made their way through the cluster of cars, four more people emerged through the woods, heading directly towards the RV and an old man holding a rifle. After hearing Sophia excitedly whisper, “That’s my mom!”, Sam let her down so she could go to her, the rest of them following close behind her. 

“Mom!” Sophia shouted, running at full speed towards her mother, who cried in shock and elation at the sight of her unharmed daughter, dropping to her knees as Sophia got within distance and pulled her into a tight hug, sobbing as she held on for dear life. Hunter smiled slightly at the reunion, hanging back with her group a few feet back as they all watched the mother and daughter hug.

“Where did you find her?” The old man asked her in awe but with a bit of distrust in his eyes; Hunter mentally nodded her head in approval - you can’t trust anyone these days, especially one who shows up with a lost child and a group of mostly men.

“Up a tree, sir, had to coast her down,” She replied stiffly, reverting back to the obedient solider that she was. She saw her brothers give her a look in the corner of her eye but she ignored them, staring straight at the man so he could see that she was telling the truth. Finally, he nodded and stuck his hand out, which she took and shook it firmly.

“I’m Dale, thank you for finding Sophia and bringing her back,” He thanked her, smiling genuinely at her now. She allowed a small one in return.

“Names Hunter, these are my brothers, Dean and Sam,” She said, pointing them out as they nodded in greeting, “Dean’s boyfriend, Castiel,” She, again, ignored the death looks and snickers, “and Sam’s boyfriend, Gabriel,” Now, she was getting death looks from all of them but she was enjoying their discomfort too much to care. She also noticed how none of them were deny her claims, which made her chuckle in joy - ‘’Bout damn time they grew some balls,’ She thought to herself as she grinned at a shocked Dale. 

“Well, our leader is sort of in a delicate situation right now but you’re welcome to stay with us, if you’re willing,” Dale started, sweeping his hand out behind him to include the others. A man welding a crossbow heard this as he walked past and he immediately came up to the old man, scoffing.

“Ya serious? We don’t know these people. They could be psychos for all we kno’” He growled, glaring at the group before him, his body tense as if waiting for an attack; Hunter eyed him curiously, trying to figure out what crawled up his ass and died.

“Here, I’ll give you a little background. Hunter O’Brien, Master Gunnery Sergeant of the Marine Corps, grew up in Ireland, moved here at twenty-five with two friends, got call back from my tour in Iraq to take care of this bullshit - only to watch as my whole platoon got torn to shreds and lost some fine soldiers. That enough?” She snarled, green eyes blazing in the darkening sky. The man just scoffed and walked off, heading towards a motorcycle, which she assumed was his since he set his crossbow next to it. A blonde woman came up to stand next to Dale, her hip cocking out to the side as she crossed her arms and gave Hunter a disgusted look.

“Daryl’s right, we don’t know who they are. A group with four men and one woman? Sure, they brought Sophia back but how do we know that they didn’t take her? Tortured her to get her to tell them where her group was, kill and rob us?” She sneered, anger and hatred swirling in her eyes. Hunter narrowed her eyes and took a step toward the woman, preening with satisfaction that she took a step back, fear now seeping into her eyes as she took in the other blonde’s weapons.

“If that’s who you think we are, then I pray you don’t run into worse people because you won’t last long,” Hunter threatened, her voice dropping to a deep bass. “I don’t think you heard me earlier when I said that those guys are gay and I know for a fact that they’d rather rip off their own dick before touching a little girl inappropriately. You think we brought the girl back to her ma just to turn around and kill her? You don’t think we could’ve done that after she told us about her group? Spent all day trekking the woods and almost being walker food just to bring her here and murder y’all? For what? A few supplies? Sweetheart,” Hunter mocked, her Irish accent bleeding through as she got angrier, “I don’ need ya food or ya goddamn weapons, y’all have nothin’ tha I don’ al’eady ‘ave, so w’at would ta poin’ of killin’ y’all be? I don’ kill just ta kill, I kill ta stay alive, jus’ as we all ‘ave been. So, ya can go shove ya righteous, self-pretentious bullshit up ya ass and mind your own fuckin’ business.” She spat on the ground by the blonde’s feet before pushing past her, bumping her shoulder roughly as she did so, and made her way towards her car.

“That was hot,” She heard Gabriel mutter in awe before a smacking sound resounded in the air followed by a yelp and she knew that Sam hit him; she chuckled dryly before sighing in relief as her ‘72 red Dodge Challenger sat in front of her. It had been a rough day and she felt a lot better knowing she still had her car - she didn’t care if it was dirty and had walker blood smeared all over it, it was still her baby and she’d rather die then have to ditch it somewhere.

“That yours?” A small voice spoke up from behind her. Hunter stiffened and spun around, her sword already in her hand before she realized what she was doing; noticing it was the young Asian boy from the group, she relaxed and sheathed her sword once again, glaring at the boy as he shifted uncomfortable on his feet, shoving his hands deep into his pants pockets. She let him squirm for a bit before answering him, taking pity on the poor boy.

“Yea, it’s mine - had it since I was sixteen. Took it with me after I left Ireland. Couldn’t bear it to leave her behind and that’s not gonna change just because the apocalypse happened,” She joked, walking around to the trunk and unlocked it, knowing the boy was following close behind her so she shifted her duffel bag a bit to hide the latch to her secret compartment - no need for the boy to know what she did for a side job - and set her bow and arrows behind it.

“I’m Glenn, by the way. Sorry about Andrea, she - she’s been on edge the past couple days...we all have,” Glenn muttered, kicking at the asphalt. Hunter just hummed in understanding as she shrugged her military jacket off and chucked in the trunk next to her gear, leaving her in a black racer-back tank top. Hunter went through her routine of emptying out her pockets and throwing whatever she found into the trunk, so she didn’t hear Glenn’s gasp of excitement when her tatted up arms were revealed. She was pulling out a cigarette from one of her many new packs when Glenn reminded her that he was still next to her.

“I didn’t peg you as a Pokemon fan,” He stated with a grin, gesturing to her arm when she shot him a confused look. Hunter looked down at her arm as if she forgot there was a full sleeve of different Pokemon ranging up and down her arm; she smirked at him as she lit her cigarette and leaned against the bummer.

“There’s a lot of things you don’t know about me,” She pointed out, raising an eyebrow as Glenn shrugged before nodding. Hunter chuckled a little as she took a drag and licked her lips, preparing to share the story behind her sleeve, “Pokemon was my life in the 90’s - of course, we didn’t get it until it already aired for a few months and it was in Gaelic but goddamn, made my teenage years, I tell ya,” Taking another drag, she looked over at where her brothers and angels were milling about - the hunters were speaking with Daryl and the angels were listening intently to whatever Dale was telling them. “After I moved here, I thought, why the fuck not? Saved up enough cash and got all my favorite Pokemon tatted on my arm. Came in handy during boot camp, too,” She sent Glenn a mischief grin as she finished her cigarette and stomped on it.

Hunter noticed a figure huddled in the back of RV behind Glenn and she furrowed her eyebrows, glancing over at the Asian boy before nodding towards the figure, “Who’s that?” Glenn spun around to see who she was talking about and his shoulders slumped, heading bowing before looking over his shoulder at her.

“That’s T-Dog. He’s got a blood infection, cut his arm pretty badly on one of the cars and we couldn’t find any sort of medicine in any of them,” He explained, frowning as he watched his friend shiver violently under the dying heat of the sun. Hunter frowned as well, humming in thought as she turned and re-opened her trunk, digging around in her personal duffel bag for her first aid kit. Holding the metal tin under her arm, she made sure no one was watching her before opening her secret compartment and dug around until she found her baggy of drugs - all prescription and from a pharmacy she looted last week. Snapping the lid closed, she slammed her trunk and re-locked it, setting her things down on the hood before motioning for Glenn to bring his friend over to her.

Looking over to her brothers, she caught Gabriel’s attention and motioned him over. Sniffling, she dug around in her pockets to find a hair tie and piled her greasy blonde hair into a bun, praying she can find a stream or a small body of water soon to take a bath. As she waited for Glenn and Gabriel, she popped open her first aid kit and set to work on filling a syringe with morphine; feeling someone coming up behind her, she took a quick glance to see Glenn helping T-Dog shuffle over to her. Noticing that it was his right arm injured, she scanned over her car quickly and wrenched open the driver’s side, rolling down the window as the duo stopped in front of her, Gabriel sauntering up next to them - she gave him a look as she climbed out of her car, to which he just shrugged at.

She smiled gently at T-Dog, “Hi, I’m Hunter and I saw that you hurt your arm pretty bad. Is it alright if I take a look at it?” The way he was just staring at her was making her uncomfortable, so she tried a different approach. “If it’ll make you feel better, I know what I’m doing - my friend was a Combat Medic and, ya know, being in the military, ya kinda have to know these things. Plus, I have morphine to help-” She cut herself off when he suddenly stumbled towards her, catching the door frame in time and plopped himself down onto the leather seat; T-Dog looked up at her expectantly, holding his injured arm out the open window. 

Chuckling, she motioned for his other arm and prepped him for the syringe, patting his arm gently after she was done. While she waited for the morphine to kick it, she went around to the passenger side and dug out the travel size bottle of cheap whiskey - she can always go looting for more later, right now was more important. Jogging back over, she noticed T-Dog was smiling stupidly at nothing, so she assumed that the morphine was working; snickering, she went over to Gabriel and told him to keep T-Dog distracted while she tending to him. Pouring the whiskey over her hands, she rubbed the alcohol in and up her forearms a bit, shaking off some of the access as she opened a new needle and thread. But first, she had to see how big this cut was before she measured out the thread and knotted it.

Grabbing a pair of surgical scissors, she carefully cut the electrical tape of his make-shift bandage and peeled it off, wincing when blackened veins and angry flesh greeted her. Hearing a small groan of discomfort, she looked up at T-Dog to see him chatting peacefully with Gabriel; furrowing her eyebrows in confusion, she glanced around her to see Glenn eyeing T-Dog’s arm with a queasy expression. Rolling her eyes, she told him to go keep her brothers company, seeing as he was close to barfing everywhere and she’d rather not deal with a queasy stomach herself. 

Hunter sighed, prepping the needle and thread before kneeling next to her car door so she was eye-level with her work and wasted no time at stitching the wound, the occasional wince and groan from T-Dog when she hit a tender spot. She was half way done when the sound of stomping boots came from behind her - knowing that almost everyone wore heavy boots nowadays, she took a quick glance behind her and was surprised to see Daryl swaggering up to her. She gave him the briefest of nods as an acknowledgment before going back to her work, trying to finish it quickly as the sun went further down.

“Hey,” Daryl grunted, setting a pill bottle on the hood of her car, “Got some antibiotics for ‘Dog. Doxycycline, think they’ll help?” Hunter hummed, nodding her head distractedly as she squeezed T-Dog’s skin together and gently pushed the needle through a tender spot.

“Generally, any type of antibiotic can cure Sepsis, so that’ll definitely help but isn’t Doxycycline mainly for treating the clap?” She asked, glancing up at him just in time to see him grimace.

“My brother, they’re his,” He explained, nodding to the pill bottle. Hunter ‘ah’ed with a nod, finishing up the stitches and bandaged his arm with a fresh roll of gauze. She washed her hands again in alcohol before grabbing the pill bottle, reading the instructions on it and caught a glimpse of a name. Merle Dixon. ‘Well, thank you, Merle Dixon,’ Hunter thought as she shook out a couple and gave them to T-Dog before giving the bottle back to Daryl.

“The group’s about to head out, towards a farm. Our leader’s kid got shot while we were out looking for Sophia and we’re about to go meet up with them,” Daryl said, pocketing the bottle. Although he was speaking with her, she could tell he was not comfortable with her yet and probably only came over to see what she was doing with T-Dog - she wasn’t quite comfortable with him either but her body obviously was by the way it was reacting to him just talking. The man has probably the most sexist voice she ever came across and that was saying something when Castiel’s around.

“Good. ‘Cause although T-Dog’s out of the ball park right now, he still needs an IV to get his blood pressure and fluids back up and I don’t have that kind of thing on me,” She mumbled as she dug around in her pockets for her smokes. As she lit one, she noticed Daryl was eyeing her pack with a look she knew belonged to a smoker who hadn’t had one in a while; smirking, she offered him the pack and with a raised eyebrow, he took one with a nod of thanks. Chuckling, she shook her head and offered him the pack again.

“Take it, I found a few more on a couple of the corpses,” She was careful on not saying ‘Croats’ because then it’d just raise more questions that she didn’t want to answer. With a shrug, he pocketed the pack with a grunt and produced a lighter, lighting his cigarette quickly and leaned against a neighboring car. Leaning against her own car, she enjoyed her cigarette and watched her brothers bicker with their angels, while Glenn was helping T-Dog into the RV as she saw Sophia and her mom laughing from the window. She snorted when Gabriel jumped on Sam and planted a sounding kiss on the giant.

“What happened to ya face?” Hunter’s head snapped around at the question, looking at Daryl with furrowed eyebrows and a head tilt.

“What?” He gestured to the left side of his face before pointing at hers. Hunter froze, cigarette dangling from her lips as she tried to find the right excuse to explain the three claw marks marring the left side of her face. She was wondering when someone would have the balls to ask her but she wasn’t expecting it to be so soon after she met them, she didn’t have enough time to think up a lie.

“Wolf,” Might as well tell half the truth, “Went hiking in the woods and got attacked. Was lucky to keep my eye,” She shrugged, taking a deep drag and prayed that he’d believe her - not that he should, she was still just a stranger to them but she hoped she gained some of his respect in the short half an hour from their encounter.

“Where?” He narrowed his eyes at her, his own cigarette dangling from his lips and she had to fight the inappropriate thoughts away. 

“Backwoods of Ireland. Really, it’s nothing, past is the past, nothing to do about it now,” She tossed her now dead cigarette on the ground and turned around to pack up her kit, tossing it in the backseat. She looked over her shoulder to see Daryl was still watching her, his cigarette dead on the ground as well. “Well? Thought we had to go meet up with the rest of your group?” She grinned as he rolled his eyes and stomped back to his bike. Whistling a four-tone, she beckoned her brothers over once she got their attention and they all piled into her tiny car, Dean sitting up front with her while the others sat in the back, Gabriel having to sit on Sam’s lap with his feet in Castiel’s - neither of them protested (save for Cas, who poked at his brother’s leg with a frown) as she pulled up behind Daryl in the convoy.


	4. Death of the Twins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hunter gets some unwelcome news.

Hunter tapped her fingers against the steering wheel, waiting for someone to speak up and explain shit to her but seeing as they just drove to the entrance of the farm in dead silence, they were waiting for her to start the conversation. Rolling her eyes, she turned to follow Daryl down the dirt path, sweeping a glance over all four of them and noticed they were all pointedly looking away from her.

Growling, she spoke up, "Alright, who wants to explain what the fuck is going on?" More dead silence followed her question, so she asked a different one, "Gabe, what's the word on Con and Murph?" She eyed him in the rear view mirror and saw the disheartened expression that fell on his face. A cold feeling settled in her chest, spreading it's icy threads throughout her veins. 

"They're dead, aren't they?" Hunter questioned quietly; Gabriel's silence was enough to answer her. Nodding mutely, she parked behind Daryl and exited her car, not even waiting for the others to scrabble out as she rounded to her trunk and grabbed her bow and arrows. 

Slamming her trunk closed once again, she past by the four men with a parting, "Don't kill anyone," as she stalked past the rest of the group and towards the woods, the tightening in her chest getting worse at every step she took - she knew it was only a matter of time before the thread snapped and she became a sobbing mess, she just hoped she was well within the deep of the forest before that happened.

The angels starred after her with remorse as her brothers just looked at each other with raised eyebrows.

"Alright, what's up with her?" Dean asked, crossing his arms as he leaned against the car. Gabriel sighed and rubbed his face, Castiel resting his hand on his shoulder as an act of comfort. He briefly touched Cas' hand before he lifted his head and looked at the brothers.

"Connor and Murphy MacManus were her friends - from Ireland," Gabriel explained and Sam cocked his head.

"These the friends she came across the pond with?" He asked and both angels nodded; Dean, however, was still hung-up on the MacManus'.

"These MacManus' - these guys aren't the Boston Saints, by any chance, right?" He pleaded, eyes jumping from one angel to the other - their expressions weren't helping his raising anxiety.

"Great. That's just great - our "supposedly" older sister was in cahoots with the fucking Boston Saints, fantastic," Dean growled, running a hand through his hair in frustration. "What, did she go around, killing people, too? Thinking she was doing "God's work"?" 

"It doesn't mean anything, not anymore, now does it?" The Archangel spat, standing toe-to-toe with the older Winchester, eyes blazing amber with his anger. Castiel tugged his brother back while Sam kept a hold on his brother's chest to prevent anymore fighting - they were already getting looks from their new group, anyways.

"How do you know Hunter? Or, well, meet her, I guess," Sam asked, shoving his hands in his pants pockets when Dean calmed down a bit. Gabrel sighed heavily as he bowed his head and hunched his shoulders - Sam had never seen the Archangel act this way before, he was always so outgoing and annoying.

"I pulled her from the Pit," the answer was so quiet that the other three wouldn't have been able to hear it if they weren't waiting for it. Shock and guilt shown in the brothers eyes, each for different reasons; for Sam, it was because if Gabriel hadn't pulled his sister out, he would've never know that he even had a sister but for Dean - he just wished that no one would ever have to experience Hell, especially one of his own family, even if he hasn't come to terms with the newly added twin sister.

Dean opened his mouth to ask what happened when the Asian kid, Glenn if he remembered correctly, came over to them, "Hey guys, we're heading in and Rick wants to thank you for finding Sophia, maybe even ask you all to stay if you want to," He grinned at them for a moment before he frowned, obviously noticing a member missing, "Where's Hunter?" 

"Hunting," Gabriel smirked, quietly snorting; Glenn just rolled his eyes and motioned for them to follow him. Only then did the men notice that during their talk, all of the others had ventured into the farm house. 

As soon as the four entered the house, they felt the atmosphere shift from somber and happy to tense and serious, making a few of the group members shift awkwardly. The brothers looked around and saw a few people steering clear of them, while two men stood tall in front of the ladies - as if the four strangers where going to cause harm to them right in front of them.

"Rick, these are the guys that met us on the highway and brought Sophia back," Glenn explained to one of the men, who stepped forward with a small smile; he didn't seem so threatening now that he knew who they were - technically.

"Rick Grimes, I'd like to thank you for finding and bringing little Sophia back to us," The guy, Rick, said as he held out his hand to shake each of theirs. Sam just waved his appraisement off, so used to people not thanking them for doing their jobs.

"It's no trouble, honestly. I'm Sam, this is my brother, Dean," He pointed Dean out before pausing, thinking a bit to himself as he turned to face Gabriel, "My boyfriend, Gabriel, and his brother - and Dean's boyfriend - Castiel," Sam beamed at Rick as Dean's dark scowl burned into his back; Rick just snickered quietly at the sibling banter.

"Daryl told me there were five of you but I only see four, where's the other one?" The other man - stern looking with his sturdy build and shaved head - sneered at them, having moved to the way back of the room with his arms crossed.

Dean rubbed the back of his head and shrugged a little, a sheepish grin lifting his lips, "She, uh, went hunting," Rick furrowed his eyebrows at him.

"At night? Doesn't she know that it's not safe to be out there?" He stressed, hands resting on his hips like a concerned parent. Gabriel stepped forward with his hands raised slightly, trying to defuse whatever argument that'll take place between the stubborn Winchester and the groups' leader.

"She's fine, she can take care of herself. Besides, she just received some devastating news about her friends and needs some time alone - she'll come back and probably with something to eat. That's her thing - her way of coping - she goes out and hunts, sometimes for a few hours or a few days. The longest she's been out was almost a week and she has always come back fine," Gabriel paused, staring at Rick before his eyes darted to Glenn and Daryl, "Please don't go after her, you'll only make it worse and you might get hurt in the process,"

"Great, so she's a nutcase? Why don't we just leave her out in those woods, save us all the trouble she'll most likely bring," The man scoffed, shifting on his feet as several people snapped their attention to him.

"Shane!" A tall woman with long brown hair gasped, shocked at the man's - Shane's - attitude. The group was even more shocked when Castiel strode straight up to Shane, eyes a blazing blue with anger.

"You watch your tone, that woman might just save your life if you aren't more respectful," He growled through his teeth, glaring a blue fury into the man's soul. There was a tense silence as Rick walked up to the angel and pulled him back from Shane, Castiel willingly going with the human's pull, remembering that he couldn't reveal his true species. 

"No, Shane's right, if she's unstable, she can't stay here. You four are welcome to the group if you wish to stay but if you have someone that could potentially snap and kill someone, she has to go," He tried to reason with the other men while Shane stood behind him with a smug grin. 

"She's not unstable," A small voice spoke up from behind the group, making everyone turn to see little Sophia standing in the doorway that connected the kitchen and living room, "She's not, she saved me, she brought me back, she's good! She didn't try to hurt me, none of them did, they're all good!" She cried, hands clutching her doll like a lifeline as she tried to convince the adults that Hunter wasn't going to harm them. Carol kneeled down next to her daughter to hug her tightly, trying to calm her down with quiet reassurance. 

"Alright, alright, look. We'll wait until she comes back and do an interview of sorts, background check, anything to see if she's dangerous, that alright?" Rick asked, eyes darting around everyone to see if there was any objections - only Shane and Andrea opposed but he oversaw them, knowing something had changed with the two and Rick wasn't sure how he was suppose to deal with them.

They didn't have to wait long for her to show up, only about half an hour since Rick put an end to the improved meeting. She had knocked on the door, timidly, almost as if she knew that they were talking about booting her to the woods, and when Dean had opened the door for her, everyone was shocked to see the state that the woman was in. Grime and blood covered her from head to toe, her hair a matted mess that hung limply around her face with drying blood that Rick wasn't even sure what color her hair was. 

What really interested Rick was the military fatigues that she was wearing, along with the weapons donned on her person - he knew instantly that she knew how to take care of herself and do it well; she was built to survive this world, just like Daryl and Rick knew without a doubt her brothers were as well. 

"I'm sorry for taking off like that," She spoke quietly, mostly just her small group but her eyes darted around the others as well, "I - I had to clear my head, I know it was stupid to go out into the woods at night but I'm fine, I'm alright. It's second nature for me to wander around at night, I'm like a cat," She joked lightly, a small smirk lifting her lips before it fell a second later. "I - I caught a boar, brought it back. It's outside, on the porch, I'll clean up the blood tomorrow, I promise. I just...please, take the boar, cook it for dinner, I don't care. Just think of it as my little peace offering," She spoke the last part to Rick, seemingly knowing that he was the leader of the rag-tag group. 

No one said anything as they still starred at her in shocked silence, making her sigh quietly and nodded at them as she turned to leave, most likely heading out to her car. Sighing heavily, Gabriel excused himself as he went to follow her, to comfort his best friend-turned-little-sister the best way that he can.

"Hunter!" He called out, jogging to catch up to her - she had practically sprinted away from the house, wanting to get away from the awkward tension she undoubtedly caused. 

"Huntie, wait a second, talk to me," Gabriel pleaded, coming to a stop next to her as she hunched over the hood of her car. Before he knew it, sobs were racking her body as her knees gave out from under her; Gabriel was just lucky he was an Archangel with great reflexes, otherwise she would've knocked her head on her car as she fell.

He cradled her against his chest as her heartbreaking sobs shook her body, his own heart clenching at the sight and sound of his little Hunter completely breaking down. It wasn't the first time he saw her like this but it never got easy, each time it happened, it took about a century of his life to witness it. 

"Shh, my little Hunter, shh, it'll be alright, they wouldn't want to give up now, I know they wouldn't," He whispered, stroking her grimy hair with a gentle touch, not even caring that there was blood and mud caked in it. Her sobs slowed somewhat, turning into small snuffles, but her tears still fell like a waterfall down her cheeks.

"How...how did they die?" Her voice thick with tears had Gabe clenching his own eyes tightly to prevent any tears escaping.

"Gun point. A few people wanted what they had and they weren't taking no for an answer. The boys didn't even stand a chance but they went peacefully, they're up in their heaven at McGrinty's with their boys. They miss you but they're happy up there, they're always watching over you, you know?" He was rewarded with a small chuckle that made him grin, even though it was wet sounding, it was still beautiful.

"I don't even want to know what else they're doing up there," Hunter stated lightly, sniffling as she wiped her tears away, laughing lightly at the mild scowl Gabe had.

"You don't. I accidentally walked in on them once already, I'm scarred for life," That just made her laugh harder, leaning on Gabriel's shoulder to hug him. She was still hugging him as her laughter faded, content to just sit on the ground in front of her car with Gabriel beside her.

"Thank you, Gabe. I needed that," She whispered, giving him a small smile before she planted a wet kiss on his cheek; she snickered when Gabe made a noise of disgust as he wiped his cheek, glaring at her playfully.

"Anytime, my dear Huntie," He grinned at her cheekily as she glared at him now, giving her a quick peck on the lips before he jumped up and started sprinting towards the house. Hunter just sat there on the ground for a bit to recollect her thoughts, laughing at Gabriel's antics before standing up herself.

"Might as well face the storm," She mumbled to herself as she, too, started towards the house but at a much slower pace then Gabe.


	5. Telling Stories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Winchester family tell some tales about their background.

Hunter took a deep breath and shook her head a bit as she stood in front of the screen door, schooling her expression into one of indifference, falling back into her usual self - the news of her segregate brothers' death hit too hard for her because she wasn't there to help them, to save them. The last time she saw them was that Boston case back in '09, the one that made them come back from Ireland and out of hiding to take care of. 

She briefly wondered how Romeo was doing before shaking her head roughly - she would not go down that road again so soon. For all she knew, he was gone, too, and she just had to accept it - just like she has to accept everything else that happens. That part of her life was over - the killings, the secrecy, the deceit - it was over when the world ended and this new world called for Gunny O'Brien. Hunter was going to use 'Winchester' when she enlisted but seeing her brothers on the FBI Most Wanted sign in the Marines' office, well, she figured she'd stick with her adopted name to avoid questions.

Taking another deep breath, she rolled her shoulders back and flung open the door, walking in with as much self-confidence as she could with strangers who could either throw her out or decide to kill her. Hunter just didn't expect to see the living room empty, save for her brothers and their angels; she could hear low murmuring coming from the adjoining door that separated the dining and living room.

"What's going on?" She asked, moving to sit on the floor by Gabriel's feet - she was still streaked with dirt and blood from being in the woods all day - not that the other's weren't as dirty as she was, just a bit less. Besides, she sorta felt like she deserved to be on the floor at the moment. 

"Meeting," Dean grunted, knocking back towards the door, "On what they're gonna do with us," Hunter pursed her lips and bit the inside of her cheek.

“You mean me, right? On what they’re gonna do with me,” She corrected him, raising her voice a bit to cut off everyone’s protest, “Y’all and I both know that after what happened earlier, they’re gonna question everything about me - out of all of them, at least one person had read the series and know my past without even asking,” She shot a glare at the two angels like it was their fault she had a ten-book series about her life without her permission. 

“What did you do anyways? With the Boston twins,” Sam asked, still the curious puppy he’s always been; Hunter had to swallow thickly before replying, masking her emotions like she was taught to.

“I was the researcher. Since I had access to the government files, I sorta...liberated a few of them, the ones that never get caught because of too much power and all that. I didn’t get involved in the killings unless I was absolutely needed - the ones that require a long-distance kill, which only happened once or twice. The boys were good at their job,” She explained, voice faded to a wispy tone at the talk of her boys, eyes glossing over as she went revisited those memories. 

“You had access to government files?” Dean demanded, eyebrows furrowed in silent rage - here she was with access to everything for years while they had the FBI on their ass.

“Shove a butt-plug in, just because I had access to those files, doesn’t mean I can just wipe out anyone I want,” Hunter snapped, “I chose the lower-level case files, the ones that no one cared about anymore. I couldn’t do anything about y’all’s files, they were at the top of every agents’ casework. If I had removed them, I would’ve been in deep shit, so shut the fuck up, you survived,” Dean, at least, had the decency to look sheepish after her reprimand; the others just chuckled.

“The worst thing was,” Hunter continued after a somewhat tense silence, “was when they found out I was adopted, that I was actually a Winchester and that I was with them, in ground zero - I actually found out through them. My adoptive parents told me but they never got a last name, so I couldn’t go out searching for y’all. But when they brought me in for questioning, things about our home life, what dad was like, if I followed the whole satanic cult,” She laughed bitterly, “but they forgot that I was only two at the time and I don’t really remember much, just fire and people yelling,” Swallowing thickly, she looked down at the floor so her brother’s don’t see the semi-lie she just told.

She remembered everything that night - she had woken up an hour before Mary did, having felt an unwelcome presence in her home and went to investigate it. When she found a strange man in little Sammy’s room, she went to go get her parents, only for an unseen force to drag her further into the room and hid her in the corner, where it was dark enough for no one to see her but for her to see everything. She watched her mother burn that night, smelt the sickly smell of burnt human flesh, watched at the stranger drop it’s blood into her brother’s mouth, felt the fire lick at her skin. She didn’t remember how she ended up outside but she had burns on her arms afterword.

Feeling a hand on her shoulder, she looked up and smiled gently at Gabriel, who was staring at her in concern - he knows what happened that night, knows what she’s seen and how it haunts her every night. Giving his hand a gently squeeze of reassurance, she shook the memories from her mind, forcefully forgetting about it for now - she had enough death and sadness for one night.

“What I want to know,” She continued and turned to Sam, “is how the hell you managed to keep your hair looking like a majestic piece of shit during the apocalypse,” He let out a loud, incredulous bark of laughter before biting his lip, trying to keep his giggles in as his shoulders shook with mirth. 

Taking a calming breath, he explained, “Bobby still has working showers at his place,” Sam wasn’t the only one who winced at Hunter’s answered yelp of “What?!”, the deep timber of her voice vibrating within their chests. She rounded on Gabriel, who shrunk in his seat and tried to hide behind Sam when he noticed the look in her eyes.

“You mean to tell me that I’ve been bathing in hot ass creek water for months when Bobby still has working showers. What the hell, Gabe?!” hissed Hunter, remembering to keep her voice down so the others in the kitchen won’t hear her. 

“I’m sorry,” The archangel breathed, still shrinking away from her, “It’s just, I know how you feel about me zapping you places. Besides, you once said you preferred the river water, said it felt like home, a sense of peace. I didn’t want to take that away from you while you had it,” Gabriel admitted, a slight pleading tone to make her understand his reasons but he shared a secretive glance with Castiel when he mentioned the river water. Hunter narrowed her eyes, catching that meaningful glance and almost growled - they were keeping something from her, most likely what Gabriel had slipped and mentioned earlier about angel business that involved her, which both angels knew she hated being left in the dark when something huge concerns her.

Hunter went to retort when the dining room door opened, her head snapping around to watch as the others piled out, some picking a piece of furniture to sit while some choose to stand, trying to elicit some authority over the others. The two that stood at the back of the group made her tense in her spot on the floor, body ready to bolt if they made the slightest move - she recognized one when she focused on their faces instead of their body language; Rick, the one with the injured child, wore his emotions on his face - though he made a good show of not letting most of them know. 

The other one, however, gave her a horrible vibe, one that told her to watch her back with him. If the way his sturdy build just screamed ‘intimidating’ might’ve done it for her if it weren’t for the look in his eyes - it was a look she’s seen one too many times in Iraq, from both the terrorists and her own comrades after they went home; it was a look of complete psychosis, someone who lost everything and snapped, only having the most redeemable thing in their mind was to inflict pain on anything and everything. 

Hunter mentally snorted - if they were talking about booting her because she had a moment of weakness, they obviously don’t know what’s going on in the mind of one of their leaders.

“We’ve come to a decision,” Rick started, keeping his voice calm and firm, his gaze jumping between the five guests. “You’re all welcome to stay if y’all up to answering a few of our questions, a background check of sorts, if you will,” He motioned to his group with a small gesture of his hand and took a seat next to who Hunter assumed was his wife, leaving the floor open to anyone who wanted to start. 

“How old are you all?” An old man standing by the fire place asked, twirling his boating hat between his fingers anxiously. Hunter shared a look with the others to see who was going to answer, making Sam roll his eyes in exasperation when her and Dean got caught in a stare down.

“These two,” He said, gesturing to his older siblings in a staring match, “are twins, they’re thirty-two. This one,” he rested his hand on Gabriel’s head, ignoring the archangel’s glare, “is forty-one, his brother is thirty-seven,” he gestured to Castiel before pointing to himself, “and I’m twenty-eight.” Sam had guessed around the age of the angel’s vessels to tell the others. The group nodded to themselves, once again falling into an awkward silence as they tried to think of questions.

“Hunter!” Glenn called out, bringing her out of her staring contest with Dean with a sharp twist of her head, only to look back at her twin with a heated glare when he cheered loudly for “winning”. Turning back to Glenn, she answered him with a bright smile, already thinking of the young Asian man as her friend. Smiling back, he asked, “What was it like growing up in Ireland?” The ones who weren’t on the highway earlier raised their eyebrows at this tiny fact, turning to watch Hunter in interest.

She hummed, playing with a stiff chuck of her hair as she tried to think of a response, “It was alright, was raised on a farm, tending to the sheep and horses, that sort of thing. My adoptive parents were alright, very strict but good people,” She missed the glance exchanged between the angels but her brothers didn’t, furrowing their eyebrows at each other and vowed to ask them what that look meant later. “I was home schooled with two of my friends, we lived way out in the countryside for any proper schooling but there was a small town near by that we’d always sneak off to and pocket whatever goodies we got our hands on,” Hunter smiled fondly as she gazed off into space, lost in the some of her best childhood memories. 

“What about you guys?” Rick’s wife asked, nodding towards the four men opposite of her. Sam and Dean both went to answer her before they stopped and shared a look, communicating through facial gestures; Sam, finally, turned back to the lady with a huff towards Dean.

“Our dad was a traveling salesman, so we moved around a lot. I had gotten tired of the constant moving and left for college, I wanted to be a lawyer,” He let out a bitter laugh, “turns out being a lawyer wasn’t meant for me, turned out to be a researcher instead. Dean, here, followed dad a bit before he broke off and went to be a mechanic,” Sam smiled a bit as he clapped Dean on the shoulder, making his brother glare at him a bit. The others were quick to realize that either Dean was uncomfortable talking to them or that Sam was just the one with better people pleasing skills then his brother.

Lori turned to the other set of brothers across from her and with one glance, she knew that only one would be talking for both - like Sam and Dean, Castiel seemed to be the most closed off and wary of them then Gabriel.

When the lady’s eyes turned to him, Gabriel chimed, “Well! Our ol’ daddy-o was the owner of a church, head priest and all that, so Cassie here and I practically grew up there, didn’t really know much else besides that. He was very strict, ya know?” He stage-whispered the others, covering his mouth and leaning away from Castiel. “Cassie was very loyal to the church and to dad, followed his footsteps and became a preacher. Me? Well, I wanted something else, something more fun. 

“I became a pornstar,” He finished with a smug smirk and a shameless shrug as he fell back into his seat, the lady gaping at him like Gabriel just revealed he was an archangel.

“I knew that was you!” A sudden cry got everyone’s attention, staring at Hunter as she grinned manically at Gabriel. “I knew it! The guys in my squad tried to convince me it was just a look-a-like but I knew it once I saw the birthmark shaped like a horn on your ass,” She just laughed triumphantly at Gabriel’s mortified expression.

“Why were you watching porn?” Castiel asked her, head tilting to the side, genuinely confused as to why she would watch something like that, let alone broadcast for others to know. Wasn’t the act of indulging in pornography suppose to be private?

Hunter shrugged, “Who doesn’t watch porn? - and don’t say yourself because I know you have!” She interrupted him when he opened his mouth to retort. “Besides, it was a gay porno and a few guys in my squad were interested,” Gabriel’s expression just soured, more for the fact that his Hunter knew he did porn and had _watched it with a bunch of guys_ then the fact that she blabbed about his birthmark. 

Rick was grinning to himself as he watched the five strangers interact - they all acted like siblings, one bicker after another, all in good-nature. They could use some of that humor around, especially now with the way things are, everyone’s been feeling down in the dumps lately. His mind wandered to Carl and Rick knew, that once his son was better and on his feet again, he would make fast friends with these five - especially Hunter, from what Glenn told him earlier about her arm tattoo.

If you ask Rick later in the coming months if he made the right decision in letting these five people into his group, he wouldn’t hesitate to say yes.


	6. Gabriel seeks help

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gabriel has a bad feeling about Hunter taking off into the forest this time and seeks out help

“Rick, I’m tellin’ you, these people are dangerous,” Shane tried to convince Rick on why they should kick the group of five to the curb.

“Shane, one of them is military, two of them raised by one, what are the odds that we’ll ever find someone with the amount of skills that they have?” Rick sighed, fed up with the constant badgering on his decisions. If one of the new group members were a problem, then he’d do something but as of right now, they were doing good in his eyes. With Hunter, they were getting twice as much game, keeping everyone well fed - Sam and Dean do good on security watch while Gabriel and Castiel kept everyone else entertained. The rest of Rick’s group warmed up to them pretty quickly, enjoying their company and felt safe knowing they have three members with military background. The only one who seemed to be unsettled was Maggie and that was only when Sam and Dean were around. Rick had asked Hunter about that but she just told him not to worry about, that they knew each other before the turn, is all.

“Who cares, man?! I don’t! We won’t need them when we get to Fort Benning,” He growled, glaring at Rick angrily before stalking off, rubbing his shaved aggressively as he went. Rick sighed heavily, moving to sit on one of the porch steps, running a hand down his face before pinching the bridge of his nose, squeezing his eyes shut to ward off the oncoming headache. Shane and Andrea have been fighting with him about his decision to let the five stay - Hershel was none too happy about having more people on his land either - saying it was quite suspicious how they never revealed their last names and such; Rick just figured they’re private people who don’t go telling their full names to people they don’t know for more then a couple days.

A throat clearing behind him made him look up and over his shoulder, smiling at Hunter as she came forward to take a seat next to him on the step.

“I’m sorry for eavesdropping on your conversation with Shane but, well, when you hear people talking smack about you, you tend to overhear,” She smirked at him as he chuckled softly, nodding in agreement with her words.

“Listen, I’m sorry about Shane, he’s just not used to having to rely on others for anything,” Rick tried to defend Shane’s behavior but one look at Hunter’s face and he knew it was a lost cause.

“Rick, I know I’m not one to talk about being unstable but at least I have a grip on mine - Shane doesn’t and he’s spiraling. I may have not been here long but I know when I see a mentally damaged man,” She whispered, staring intently into his eyes, hoping she got her message across. Shane was dangerous and spiraling quickly - if what she gathered from her short stay here, he’s on a war path of a jealous lover, willing to kill anything and anyone who got in the way of what he rightly thought belonged to him - Lori and Carl.

“What should I do then, hm? Kick him out?” He sneered, glaring at her like she brought all the problems that was going on within the group - which he knew wasn’t true but the thought of his best friend, his brother, being mentally unstable because of this world left a sour taste in his mouth. He didn’t want to think about what he’d have to do.

“No. For now, you do nothing. Stay clear of him, give him things to keep his mind and hands busy - anything to keep him from planning anything. Have him go out on a run and kill walkers, I don’t know,” She waved her hand hastily, “Look, the reason I came over here was because I heard a mention of Fort Benning,” Rick cut her off before she could finish.

“Yeah, I know. That’s where we’re heading after Carl’s all healed up,” He stopped when she shook her head frantically.

“That’s what I wanted to tell you - there is no Fort Benning. It got overrun when this whole shit storm started,” Hunter pressed, eyebrows furrowing in frustration. Rick stared at her in shock for moment before denial set in.

“Are you sure? How do you know?” He asked, urgently as he shifted his body to face her full-on, leaning forward a bit into her personal space as he got desperate; Hunter glared at him as she shifted away from him a bit.

“Because I was driving up from my station in Albany when it got overrun and I passed it on my way to Atlanta,” She explained, voice tight and void of emotion. She was reliving the moment when she saw the Army base - just crawling with walkers and half eaten bodies littering the ground. It reminded her too much of Iraq and Hunter knew she had to get into the safety of the woods before a flashback hit her again, as it always did when she remembered all her dead brother in arms out there.

“That’s all I have to say, I’m going out to hunt,” Hunter snapped, standing quickly and stalked over to her car, snatching her compound bow off the hood and took off into the woods at a jog, Rick staring after her, stunned. Gabriel, who had been watching the two talking, jogged over to Rick and leaned over the railing.

“What happened?” He demanded, eyes flashing gold for a split second. He had to keep his temper in check if he had to stay with this group, he couldn’t risk getting onto anyone bad side just to get booted later - but if they were upsetting Hunter, then they’d have to deal with him.

Rick just stared at him for while, uncomprehending, until Gabriel looked intently at the woods before turning back to him, his jaw dropping to form a small ‘o’. He sighed heavily, scrubbing his hands over his face - Rick never seemed to catch a break lately.

“Hunter and I were just talking, she mentioned Fort Benning, I asked how she knew and she told me she saw it. Next thing I know, she’s jumping up like her pants were on fire, saying she’s going out for a hunt,” Rick explained, voice weary and body slumped as even his bones felt tired. 

Gabriel groaned, “Did she mention her base in Albany?” He swore under his breath when Rick nodded, biting the inside of his cheek as he debated if he should explain or not. Knowing Hunter, she probably bottle it all up and deny talking about it ever again; besides, Rick was the leader of their little group and he had to know what was going on within the group, especially if someone was mentally damaged.

Sighing, Gabriel spoke quietly, “Hunter has bad days, as you know, where her PTSD gets out of hand. When it happens, she goes off into the safety of the forest and works through it. At first, I was really worried - ya know, with her running off every time it happened. But she always came back fine and she’d reassure me afterwords that I had nothing to worry about, she just climbs a tree and hangs out on a branch - I had followed her one day to see what she was doing,” He explained when Rick just stared at him, confused. “The reason I’m telling you all this is because of what happened at her base in Albany. Walkers were everywhere, there was no way for her to save any of them and it took a toll on her - reminded her of her tour days in Iraq.

“She’s getting better though, I think she just needed to be around new people. The base in Albany was too large, she couldn’t keep an eye on everyone and while it wasn’t her fault, she still thinks it was and carries that guilt everywhere. Here, she can protect and serve these people with everything that she has - she’ll die to protect you all, I hope you know that,” Gabriel slapped the railing as he backed away, sparing the forest one more glace before turning and walked briskly back to camp.

Gabriel knew he should go out and check on Hunter, a bad feeling he’s been having all day only got worse when she went into the forest but he also knew that, once he went after Hunter, Rick will know something’s up and send more people, leading to a bigger situation and Gabe couldn’t have that. He could have Sam or Cas distract Rick for a bit while went out but he needed to bring someone, just in case. Someone who wasn’t really part of Rick’s group nor Gabe’s, someone who could hold their own if shit went down in the forest.

Then he remembered Maggie - or Bela, whatever she went by now.

Reaching out with his senses, Gabe found her in the stables, tending to the horses - perfect. They have a straight shot to the forest without alerting the others in the house. Now that he knew where she was hiding, he went off to find Sam to give him the special task; it didn’t take Gabe long to find him either, sitting under one of the trees surrounding their small camp, conversing quietly while wheedling stick knifes from a few branches.

“Sam!” He approached the two, eyes flickering to Dean before resting on Sam again, beckoning him to come with Gabe with a nod of his head. Sam gave a slight nod as he stood up, handing Dean his wooden shank before following him, hands tucked in his jean pockets, wondering what his angelic boyfriend wanted to discuss. They only went a few feet from where Dean is, well out of hearing reach but close enough for the older brother to keep an eye on them.

“Listen, I need you or Dean or both of you to distract the group for a while, mainly Rick,” Gabriel started, speaking in hush tones while his eyes darting around them, looking for any eavesdroppers before zeroing in on Sam’s confused hazel orbs.

“Why? What’s going on?” Sam grew more concerned when Gabriel kept eyeing the forest, rubbing his mouth as he thought - Gabe only did that when he was nervous and it was making Sam anxious, not knowing what was going on with his boyfriend.

“It’s Hunter, I have this bad feeling that something’s gonna happen and it only got worse when she took off for a hunt,” 

“Then let me come with you,” Gabriel was already shaking his head before Sam could finish.

“No, you’ll only serve as a distraction to me and we can’t do that - don’t look at me like that! You know as well as I do, that as soon as we get past the forest line, we’ll be at each other like rabbits,” Sam’s cheeks flushed pink as Gabriel called him out on his thoughts, “This is Hunter, our sister, who could possibly be in danger and we don’t need distractions, I’m sorry but it’s true,” Sam chewed on the inside of his cheek as he mentally ran through all the residents on the farm to suggest to Gabe on who to take but he drew up blank.

“Then who are you taking?” 

Gabriel hesitated for a bit before answering, knowing Sam’ll pitch a fit, “Maggie,”

Sam stared at Gabe like he had two heads, “Bela? You’re taking Bela with you? A demon?” The incredulous in Sam’s voice almost had Gabe bristle but he took a deep breath to regain his emotions, knowing that Sam was still trying to get adjusted to having the woman who terrorized the brothers around again - while ignoring his hunter instincts to rid the demon - so, Gabriel couldn’t really fault him for those.

“Yes, her powers are similar to mine and will help with trying to find Hunter. Human senses are too dull and while yours’ are toned from being a hunter, they’re still not up to level with angels and demons - especially archangels. Plus, she’s not from either group, no one will notice her missing for a few hours - you have to trust me on this,” He pleaded, the two having an intense staring contest until Sam nodded, a heavy sigh through his nose as he consented. Gabriel gave him a firm but passionate kiss as a thank you, turning to jog down to the stables, hoping to catch Maggie before she left the stables; Sam just watched him leave with a fond shake of his head and a light chuckle, returning to his spot next to his brother.

Gabriel peaked around the corner from the stable doorway, grinning wickedly when he saw Maggie brushing down a horse contently, not paying attention to her surrounds like she was suppose to - he could have fun with this. It’s been a while since he pranked anyone and Gabe was getting antsy, his fingers twitchy to make some sort of mythical creature wreak havoc on everyone but he refrained himself, figuring everyone was already on edge with the whole zombie apocalypse thing, they don’t need him being a dick on top of it. But he can give a spook to someone every now and then.

Sneaking quietly in, he crouched and practically crawled over to the stall Maggie was in; he waited until her back was turned and popped up with a shout. Maggie gave a startled shout and twirled around, hand flying to her chest as her eyes flashed black at the sight of Gabriel - the horse just snickered at them as Gabriel practically rolled around on the stable floor, clutching his sides as he laughed.

“Gabriel!” She shouted, face red in embarrassment as she glared at the archangel. Maggie rose an eyebrow at the hysterical archangel, face cooling down as her embarrassment faded. “Okay, c’mon, it wasn’t that funny,” Gabriel still continued to laugh, borderline sobbing at this point; Maggie frowned, exiting the stall and stood off his shaking form. “Alright, what the fuck is wrong with you?” She added a shift kick to the shin to further her point in making him answer. It took a few minutes but he stopped long enough to regulate his breath, pains in his body from his painful laughter. 

“I need your help,” He muttered, still on the floor, still curled in the fetal position; Maggie just scoffed, going to the empty stall at the end to toss her tools away.

“And what do you need my help for?” She asked, her southern twang settled oddly on his ears - he was so used to her being British that even after years of hiding in the south, it still sounded weird to him.

“Hunter,” At her expectant face, he elaborated with a small eye roll, “She went off into the woods and I’ve been having this bad feeling all day, which only got worse when I saw her take off,” 

“Are you sure that’s just not your protective archangel instincts?” She chuckled a little when he flipped her off, finally getting up off the floor and joining her by the stall. “Alright, I’ll help you save the fragile archangel,” He gave her a look at that and she just shrugged innocently.

“You can’t say that shit, she’s still human and she has a choice,” Maggie cut off his tiresome protests with a look of her own.

“This is Hunter we’re talkin’ about. If there’s a tiny chance that she could fix all of this, you really think she’s just gonna walk away and be the anti-hero?” At his defeated look, she smiled sadly at him and patted his shoulder, “It’ll be alright, we still have a while before she finds it but we won’t even get that amount of time if we don’t move it right now, c’mon,” Maggie consoled him as she guided him by the shoulders out of the stables and into the woods, both of them checking over their shoulders to see if anyone was watching them.

Gabriel fluttered his wings nervously as they broke the forest line, ignoring Maggie’s look of interest as she watched the three sets of golden wings be revealed to her - she’s always just seen the large set and as shadows, never corporal and solid; he had to find Hunter, had to know she was safe and unharmed in his range of sight.

He’d never forgive himself if something happened to her, again, under his watch.


	7. Demon Powers and Wendigos

“Okay, it’s been bugging me, do you know why Hunter made that deal?” Dean asked Castiel as they watched Sam doing chores with the ladies, all of them smiling gratefully at him. Dean knew that one of them - Andrea, he thinks - absolutely despised doing chores and wanted to do the men’s work but since the small group fell upon them, there wasn’t an opening for her to take watch and she was just being a terror for everyone, except Shane.

“Dean, you already know,” He furrowed his eyebrows at Castiel’s vague answer and frowned at him.

“What?” Castiel sighed and gave his boyfriend a look that just screamed ‘wow, you’re clueless’.

“Why did you make the deal to save Sam?” He asked instead, throwing Dean off.

“Because he’s my brother, I couldn’t live without him,” Castiel nodded, agreeing with Dean’s answer.

“Now, who were Hunter’s family?” Dean’s eyes lit up in recognition, only to dim again when he remember.

“She sold her soul for the twins,” Castiel nodded solemnly at Dean’s gruff words.

“It was when they were still in the business and Hunter was away in Iraq. She came home and a couple weeks later, they were killed in a robbery. Kind of ironic if you think about,” Castiel ignored Dean’s surprised choked noise and continued, “She didn’t even think about, she just went straight for a crossroads and made a deal. They gave her three months,” Dean was silent for a while, absorbing all this information about his twin.

“How long was she down there?” He asked quietly, gazing off into the forest where he knew Gabriel was searching for Hunter. 

Castiel sighed, bowing his head, almost like he was ashamed to answer, “A year and a half,” Dean inhaled sharply, grinding his teeth to keep from yelling.

“Did she...” He trailed off, not wanting to say it but also not wanting to know if she did the same thing he had done.

“No, she refused,” Dean nodded to himself, pressing his lips together as he kept a tight hold on his emotions. On the one hand, he was glad she didn’t make the choice he did but on the other, he felt like a failure for caving, if only he held out a bit longer...

“Don’t compare yourself to her, Dean,” Castiel snapped, not even having to read Dean’s thoughts to know what he was thinking. “While you are twins, you’re vastly different from one another. She’s a trained Marine, you were only raised by one. She was taught to withstand those types of torture, was even a torturer at one point - being the torture at many others in warfare. While you understand various types of pain, you weren’t tortured until you went to Hell, you had no back experience. Do not blame yourself, do not compare yourself to others. You did what you could, accept that,” Castiel stared furiously at Dean, trying to will him into accepting his words. Dean just nodded, giving Cas a tight-lipped smile and a chaste kiss on the cheek - he kept telling him it was to keep up appearances but they both knew better - before venturing down to Sam, nodding his head towards the group of men and clapped him on the shoulder as he left. 

Castiel sighed heavily, rubbing the back of his neck to ease some tension and ambled his way towards the house, hoping to have another lovely conversation with Hershel.

Gabriel grumbled as he smacked another tree branch out of his face - he didn't like how far out Hunter had gone into the woods but that's just who she was and while he wished she would care more about her self-preservation, he wouldn't change her for anything.

"So, what happened after y'all stuck me here? Besides the whole zombie apocalypse thing," Maggie asked, breaking the silence and sidestepping an exposed tree root. Gabriel sighed heavily, kicking at the dirt as he tried to think of how to explain what happened.

"Well, as I'm sure you were aware, Lucifer raised the four horsemen and the Winchesters were working on getting Famine's ring - they got it but they were too late. So, after shoving Lucy back in his cage, this problem sprung up and no one has any idea of how to fix it. Hell wants nothing to do with it and Heaven's turned a blind eye, with the few exceptions. We're on our own in this, got to survive just like the others," Gabriel paused, turning to look at Maggie with a serious look that most would call his ‘archangel business’ look. "Even we're not safe. I've seen both angels and demons who either got bit or died, thinking they were immune - yes, the walkers do generally tend to avoid us but eventually, we'll all die and turn just like them." Maggie swallowed thickly and nodded, looking away from Gabriel's dark eyes to continue their search.

Her eyes scanned the forest floor, looking for any indication that Hunter had been anywhere around here when she saw some unusual tracks - they looked like human footprints but they were too elongated to be 100% human. She stopped, eyes going wide as she realized that maybe not everything was affected by the virus.

"Hey, Gabriel?" She called out; he hummed, "What are the chances of there being a wendigo out here?" She looked back at him, worried and curious green eyes meeting confused amber ones; she gestured to the ground in front of her and held her breath as he stalked over, cursing under his breath when he took in the tracks.

"Dammit," he muttered, "Should've know one would be out here, it's the backwoods of Georgia for Christ's sake," Gabriel shook his head, still mumbling under his breath as he followed the footprints, Maggie having no choice but to follow after him. After a few feet, he stopped and spun around in a circle, eyes glued to the ground; he looked up at her after a few turns with furrowed eyebrows and a deep frown.

"The tracks just disappeared, how could they just disappear?"

Maggie shrugged, "Maybe Hunter found it,"

"If she did, then she has a secret blowtorch that I don’t know about," he argued, spinning around again in a vain hope that the tracks would just pop up again. “I mean, really, I thought you were a hunter for a while, you know that wendigos are only killed with fire,” Maggie flinched, feeling something land on her head; it was wet and another came down a few seconds after the first one. 

Frowning, she reached up, trying to wipe it away, wondering where the water would be coming from when it hasn’t rained for days. She felt her blood run cold when her fingers came back red, the blood still warm; looking up slowly, she made a sort of squeaking - gasping noise when Hunter’s body hanging limply above her came into her sight. Gabriel’s head whipped around when he heard Maggie and followed her line of sight, cursing loudly before scrambling up the tree.

"Keep an eye out, the thing needs to be killed with fire! You know what to do it," he called down to her as he maneuvered his way on the branches - for an archangel, he really didn't know how to climb. After a few tense seconds, Maggie was starting to feel fidgety - she had gotten lucky since she got out here, not having to deal with monsters made her drop her guard.

“Shouldn’t we go back and get the Winchesters?” She called up to him, eyes darting around the forest rapidly.

“Are you nuts?! The thing would just follow us right into a buffet - I doubt it cares about it being broad daylight, it hasn’t had fresh meat in a while. We’re lucky it hasn’t found us this far,” Gabriel grunted, struggling with Hunter’s tall dead weight as he tried to maneuver his way down again. Maggie huffed, casting her eyes and senses out for the wendigo - really, one would think she would've gotten the hang of working her senses by now but she didn't really think she'd be using them to find a monster. Her ancestors must be rolling in the graves right now at her patheticness. 

She heard Gabriel sigh in agitation above her, "Maggie! Due North about two miles, it's wounded but not dead. Go! I got Hunter!" 

"On it!" She called back, already jogging in that direction. Now that she had a general location, she could find it easily - Maggie just hoped she had it in her to conjure fire. Stumbling upon the downed monster, she stayed behind one of the trees, not wanting it to find her while she tried to center herself, to locate that kind of power she hasn’t tried yet. 

Even though it took her a good five minutes to find it, she managed to set the wendigo on fire, trying not to acknowledge the fact it’s weakened screams gave her pleasure.

“What the fuck?” Maggie jumped when someone spoke right next to her and snapped her head, eyes wide as she finally noticed one of Hunter’s group members standing just a few feet from her. He had a crossbow aimed at her, eyes just barely a slit as he glared, dirt and blood just covering him from head to feet, and a rope of dead squirrels hung from his belt. She opened her mouth to explain herself when he interrupted her, “You’re a demon?”

Maggie furrowed her eyebrows and took a step back - how the hell did he know about demons? She knew that there were no hunters in their group, save for the Winchesters, otherwise Gabriel and Hunter would’ve told her, warn her to be on guard around certain individuals. 

“What?” was the only thing she could mutter, still stunned into silence that he knew about her secret but she had no idea who he was; it made her very uncomfortable and on edge - he could send her back to Hell and, since she had no idea what was going on right now, she might not be able to crawl her way back out again.

“I said, you’re a demon, aren’t you? Or a demon-witch. Doesn’t matter, really, just tell me why you’re here,” He growled, stepping towards her like a predator. Maggie had to control the urge to gag when he mentioned the demon witches - those bitches were nasty as fuck and, if she wasn’t threatened by this man, she would’ve smacked him nine different ways to Sunday for even mentioning she might be one.

“I’m here because this is my home, this is my body,” speaking through clenched teeth, she wondered if she could make her way back to Gabriel, either by running or leading this man there slowly; Maggie figured the latter would be better - she had a feeling that if she took off running, he wouldn’t hesitate to fire that crossbow at her, not caring that he could potentially ruin their groups chances at staying.

“Bullshit, you’re possessing an old man’s daughter!” He practically screamed at her, little flecks of spit hitting her face. “Tell me, is she still alive in there or did you kill her before taking her body?” Right now, Maggie was on the border of being scared shitless by this man and wanting to kill him so he doesn’t go blabbing to everyone else. Knowing that anything she said would just fly right over his head until he got the answer he wanted, she had no other choice than to call for Gabriel. Hopefully Gabe would talk some sense into him; if not, then they’re all screwed.

“Gabriel!” She yelled, putting more power behind it, so that it would echo louder and give Gabe a sense of urgency. 

“Hey! Shut up!” The man shouted, jabbing the crossbow in her face, just as a flutter of wings came from behind Maggie; the aggrieved man tensed at the noise but his eyes never left her face.

“Whoa, hey, Daryl. What’s going on, what’s with the crossbow?” Gabriel came between them after setting Hunter propped up against a tree. The man, Daryl, snarled at Maggie before shifting his gaze towards Gabriel, keeping his crossbow aimed at her.

“She’s a fucking demon, how the fuck did you miss that? Why is she still here? We’ve been here for a couple days now, why did y’all exorcise her?” Gabriel had to hold a hand up to stop Daryl’s rapid questions.

“Okay, hold your horses, Dixon. Yes, she’s a demon but!” He paused and gave Daryl a look when he went to interrupt. “But, she’s a friend of ours - back when she was still human. Maggie was telling you the truth when she said it’s her own body. When Hunter asked me if I could find and rescue her friend, Maggie was already a demon but she chose to keep a part of her humanity. She’s on our side, Hell doesn’t want anything to do with her,” 

Daryl stood stock still as he processed what Gabriel told him, eyes darting back and forth between them and Hunter; eventually, he lowered his bow with a displeased grunt.

“What’s the matter with her?” He nodded towards Hunter, who was still out cold against the tree and soaked in blood, changing the subject on a dime, and they figured that was his way of dealing with something he no longer wanted to talk about. Gabriel followed Daryl’s line of eyesight and swore loudly as he ran to Hunter, whom he momentarily forgot was injured and was listing on the side, her face inches from planting on the ground. 

“Wendigo,” Maggie answered for him, nodding towards the now pile of ashes that was once the wenidgo. Daryl nodded, humming in a slight thanks towards her before going to Gabriel’s side. He couldn’t see how bad the damage was but he knew she’d have new scars later on - he just didn’t know where, she was literally covered from head to toe in blood and it was hard to pin-point an injury.

“Where’s she hurt?” He asked, slightly hesitant because even though they were all in this supernatural thing, Daryl hardly knew her and it felt awkward for him to ask.

“Her chest.”

Now, Daryl felt really awkward for asking, trying to ignore the slight burn in his cheeks as his eyes darted away from Hunter’s blood soaked shirt.

“I’ve already healed most of it but the cuts are still deep enough to cover any suspicion amongst the others.” Daryl grunted in agreement to Gabriel’s statement, moving to pick her up to carry her back.

“We better get a move on then, Rick’ll want Hershel to take a look at her - hope y’all thought of a cover story for that,” He threw over his shoulder, already going a steady pace towards the farm, the other two just staring at his back as he walked away. Maggie and Gabriel looked at each other, a little bewildered, before Gabriel shrugged and jogged a bit to catch up with him; Maggie sighed tiredly, her chin dropping to her chest as she followed at a slower pace, already feeling the drain on her unused powers catch up with her.

“We’ll say a wolf got her again. Worked last time,” Gabriel gestured towards her face, the three scars stood out more against her gray-ish pallor. Daryl grimaced as he tried to find any loop-holes.

“They’re gonna ask why I didn’t catch it, since I’m coming back with y’all,” Gabriel gave a short groan at that.

“Then say that it was too skinny, no meat, and the fur was disgusting,” Daryl thought it over before shrugging - it was the best they could come up with in short notice, as they broke through the forest line and onto the Greene property, the farm house looming in the distance.

“Go find Rick, tell him what happened, I’ma wait for Maggie,” He suggested to Gabriel, noticing that Maggie was lagging behind a bit and looked like she was on her death bed.

Gabe shook his head, “No need, I sent Cas a message and he already told the important people, Hershel’s getting a room ready for her,” Daryl sped up at that, wanting to get this over with and wash off Hunter’s blood off his arms. He strode past her brothers, ignoring their shouts for him to slow down and explain what happened, and into the front door Rick was holding open for him.

“In here,” Hershel waved him into the room opposite of the one Carl’s in and found the youngest Greene setting up shop next to the stripped bed. Daryl sent Hunter down on it gently and left as they started working on her, his cheeks burning again when he caught the sound of ripping fabric- it was one thing to know where her injuries are, it’s another to actually see them and he was pretty sure that if Hunter was awake, she’d hit him for lingering.

As he stepped out on the porch, he spotted the Winchesters and Castiel with Gabriel and Maggie on the other far end and started towards them, his back burning with the stares of his group’s eyes following him. When he stepped into their little circle, he could tell that they already told her brothers what really happened and that the Wendigo was already taken care of.

“Hershel’s stitching her up now,” He announced, leaning against one of the wooden beams next to him. He held a hand out and shook his head when Maggie moved to go inside. “Beth’s helping.” Maggie nodded and changed her direction to sit in the rocking chair next to the front door, her body sagging once she sat. He was still curious to why she made a deal and why she still kept part of her humanity, even though she twisted her soul enough to become a demon.

Seems like he wasn’t the only one thinking about it either.

“So, how was Hell, Bela? Oh, wait, do you still go by Bela? Or is it Abby?” Dean taunted, his mouth twisted in a sneer as he glared at her. Daryl furrowed his eyebrows as he watched the two glare at each other, Maggie’s hands clenched into fists while Dean stood proud with his arms crossed.

Sam sighed, exasperated, “Dean, c’mon,” 

“No,” He snapped, turning his glare on his brother. “Sam, she made our lives hell when she was human and now that she’s a demon, who knows what kind of shit she’s going to pull,” Daryl could understand Dean’s anger towards what Maggie (or Bela, whatever her name was) did before but he could tell that it was a bitter anger, one that was stubbornly held onto for who knows how long.

“That was years ago and I was only doing my job,” Maggie snapped back, refusing to rise to Dean’s level and tried to calm herself. Dean went to tear into her again when Castiel dragged him off somewhere, possibly to lecture him or something, judging by the look he was giving him.

“Bela --” Sam started but she interrupted him, her voice and eyes hard as she regarded him. “It’s Maggie, start using it,” He swallowed hard and nodded, giving her a sheepish smile; even after all these years, she still had that effect on him.

“Right. Maggie. I can tell you’ve changed but for the sake of Dean’s sanity, can you tell me what happened?” He pleaded, using his tone-down version of his puppy-eyes to convince her. By her defeated sigh, he knew it worked and got comfortable against the railing across from her.

“When I got to Hell, they put me on the racks next to Hunter,” She started, her voice quiet and soft, like she didn’t want to speak about it but knew she had to to defend her case. Again, Daryl wanted to know what made her make a deal and now he was curious about Hunter’s deal. “It went on for years, almost made it to two centuries before I cracked. Gabriel had already come for Hunter a century back, then I was on my own. 

“I tried so hard to avoid this but without Hunter,” She croaked, tears pooling in her eyes as the memory flashed through her mind. “I was no longer distracted, no longer had something to hold out for. He came back for me about five years into my young demon years. They managed to track down my body, fixed it up, found an old hunter who was willing to keep me and I got a new family in exchange.” It was silent for a while as Sam processed what she just told them and Daryl let his curiosity get the better of him.

“Why’d you make the deal?” He wanted to punch himself in the face once he realized that the question came from him. Maggie smiled softly at him, like she knew that he didn’t mean to blurt that out and was only curious.

“I made the deal to kill my parents,” She admitted, softly, only looking at Daryl since the others already knew this. “I made the deal to get away from my abusers.” Daryl looked away from her, swallowing thickly once he got what she was saying - her parents, or one of them, was abusing her and once she found a way out, she didn’t hesitate to take it. He wondered if he’d do the same if he was the one to find that way out but he’d never know and a part of him was thankful for it. There were too many pros and cons regarding something like that and seeing what the outcome was with Maggie, that part of him that was thankful for it, knew he was glad he wasn’t offered the same thing.

“You made the right choice,” He told her, expressionless but his eyes showed sympathy. Maggie gave him a loving smile as the Winchesters gave him a look of betrayal; Daryl just gave them a shrug and jumped over the railing, not giving any of them a second glance as he made his way to the watering hole - he really should’ve taken advantage of their bathroom but it didn’t feel right. He didn’t feel like he belonged in the nice house, being all dirty and smelling worse than the walkers.

Daryl was in the middle of washing the last of Hunter’s blood off when he heard the crunching of grass behind him. Tensing, hands automatically going for his crossbow as he turned, only to immediately drop them when he saw it was just Rick. Daryl waited, arms hanging limply by his sides, blood tainted water dripping off his fingertips as Rick stopped in front of him.

“What happened out there?” He asked, one of his hands in his front pocket while the other rested on his Python. 

Daryl shrugged, “Wolf got her.” Rick looked at him like he lost his mind.

“And you didn’t catch it?”

“Was too skinny, had no meat. Fur was no good for clothing,” It amazed Daryl how easy Gabriel’s words fell off his tongue - he almost believed the lie himself. Rick nodded, looking off into the woods as the sun was starting to set.

“Hunter’s awake, been asking for you,” Daryl stopped short, staring at RIck like he was the one who lost his mind this time.

“Why?” 

“Gabriel told her that you were the one who carried her back. I’m guessing she just wants to thank you,” Rick shrugged and motioned for Daryl to follow him, already turning to head back. “It’s getting dark.” He was already a few feet ahead before Daryl realized and shook himself out of his reverie. Why would Hunter want to thank him? All he did was carry her back, anyone could’ve done that. He almost didn’t want to go see her, just to spite her request and ignore her, like before. But Daryl found himself heading up the porch steps and through the front door, heading up the stairs and stopping in front of the room he put her in. The door was already open and Gabriel sat beside her on the bed, grinning at him as he tried to force-feed Hunter.

“Gabe, I swear to Morrigan, if you try to shove that spoon in my face again, I’m gonna shove it in your eye,” Daryl had to bite his lip to prevent the grin that wanted to break free, Hunter’s threat was weak as a kitten but he still saw that tiny bit of fear in Gabriel’s eyes.

“Aw, c’mon, you can’t threaten me with the ghost of your Aunt,” Gabriel tried to downplay it, laughing nervously as he set her bowl of soup on the nightstand, pointedly ignoring her glare. 

“Try me,” She growled, trying to look murderous but with how pale and weak she was from blood loss, she looked very non-threatening. Gabriel let out another nervous laugh as he backed away, his hands up in surrender. He motioned for Daryl to follow him out into the hallway when he was sure that Hunter was occupied with her food.

“Hershel gave her some painkillers, so she’s a little loopy. If she mistakes you for someone else or starts crying when she sees you, don’t take it personally - all her walls are down because of the meds and she’s not aware of it.” Gabriel told him, his voice low so only Daryl got it; he gave Gabe a confused look, though.

“What makes you say that?” Daryl didn’t like the look he gave him.

“She knew your cousins, Connor and Murphy,” Now, Daryl really didn’t like the look Gabriel was giving him. He chewed on his lip as he realized Gabe was using past tense and that his cousins were dead - he already knew they were, something told him they were, but to actually hear it was something else. Now, he was debating again on whether he should go in there or not; Daryl wasn’t sure if he could handle being told he looked like Murphy’s twin but he knew that Hunter probably couldn’t handle looking at him right now either.

“Maybe I’ll see her tomorrow, after the drugs wore off a bit,” He suggested, shrugging like it was no big deal. 

“Maybe. Maybe not. She did ask for you, ya know,” 

“Yeah because you told her I carried her back, you ass,” Gabriel just grinned at Daryl’s glare and pranced away, patting him on the shoulder as he passed. Daryl just huffed at his retreating form and peaked into the room again, relieved to see her passed out cold. He’d save the embarrassing talk for the morning, taking off down the hall and out the door like his life depended on it.


End file.
